Emily Coates
Classes & Workshops
Big Move

Emily Coates

with astronomer Elisabeth Newton
July 23, 2021

This event occurred as part of the 21/22 Classes & Workshops season. This is an archived view.

Stargazing and astronomical inquiry guide the creation of movement in this evening workshop set on the grounds of the Shattuck Observatory.

21/22 Classes & Workshops


The trope of the cosmic dance has persisted for thousands of years, as human engagement with the universe continually morphs and reinvents itself. In this dance investigation/lecture/creative laboratory for her new project, resident artist Emily Coates has partnered with Dartmouth astronomer Elisabeth Newton. We invite you to join them on the grounds of the Shattuck Observatory for a guided movement experience, infused with astronomical knowledge and accompanied by the improvisations of Taylor Ho Bynum, Director of the Coast Jazz Orchestra.

Bring a towel or blanket to sit on the grass; a limited number of chairs will be provided. Please wear comfortable clothing and shoes you can move in. This experience is open and accessible to all physical abilities and backgrounds, the movement will be adapted to individuals' needs.

Please contact the Hop Box Office for additional accessibility needs and questions at 603 646 2422.

This event is part of Big Move
Big Move is a new series that pairs inventive dance artists with wide-ranging areas of research here at Dartmouth. The series is part of the Hop's ongoing initiative to integrate the arts across Dartmouth's academic programs, leveraging artists and their work as springboards for interdisciplinary learning. More on Big Move >

The Big Move Series is generously supported by Claire Foerster and Daniel S. Bernstein 1987.

Funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.

Photo courtesy of the artist

About Emily Coates

A dancer, choreographer, and writer, Emily Coates has performed internationally with New York City Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project, Twyla Tharp and Yvonne Rainer. Career highlights include three duets with Baryshnikov, in works by Erick Hawkins, Mark Morris, and Karole Armitage, and the span of Rainer's work from 1961 to the present. Awards and fellowships include the School of American Ballet's Mae L. Wein Award for Outstanding Promise; Baryshnikov Arts Center's Martha Duffy Memorial Fellowship; and a 2019 Dance Research Fellowship, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. She is an Associate Professor (Adjunct_ of Theater and Performance Studies at Yale University. Learn more about Emily Coates.

About Elisabeth Newton

Elisabeth Newton is an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy. She is an observational astronomer studying the physics of stars and their planets, using data from ground-based observatories such as SALT and MDM. She investigates how the spin and magnetic properties of stars are related, and how these stellar properties change with time. She also works to detect and characterize exoplanets around young and magnetically active stars in order to understand how exoplanets form and evolve.

About Ain Gordon

Ain Gordon is a three-time Obie Award-winning writer/director/actor, a two-time NYFA recipient and a Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting. Gordon's work often focuses on marginalized or forgotten histories and the invisible players inhabiting that space. Recent projects include Radicals In Miniature: a series of requiems to personal icons, that premiered in 2017 at Baryshnikov Arts Center (NY) and Vermont Performance Lab and toured in 2018/19 to International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Quick Center, Connecticut College (all CT), Williams College and The Yard (both MA). Gordon is Co-Founder of the Urban Memory Project and has been Co-Director of the Pick Up Performance Co(s) since 1992.

About Taylor Ho Bynum

Taylor Ho Bynum, who began teaching at Dartmouth in 2017, has spent his career navigating the intersections between structure and improvisation—through musical composition, performance and interdisciplinary collaboration, and through teaching, writing, production and organizing. Bynum's expressionistic playing on cornet and his expansive vision as composer have garnered him critical attention on over twenty recordings as a bandleader and dozens more as a sideman. His varied endeavors include his Acoustic Bicycle Tours (where he travels to concerts solely by bike across thousands of miles) and his stewardship of Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Foundation (which he served as executive director from 2010-2018, producing and performing on many major Braxton projects, including two operas and multiple festivals). Bynum has worked with other legendary figures such as Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, and Wadada Leo Smith and maintains current collaborative projects with artists like Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson and Tomeka Reid, among others. Bynum's writing has been published in the New Yorker, Point of Departure and Sound American, and he has served as a panelist, board member and consultant for leading arts organizations and individual artists.

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Visiting Information

15 Observatory Rd
Hanover, NH 03755

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